14 Aug Minato Furuta and Yusuke Otsuka in Worlds Finals
The 2016 World Yo-yo Contest was held in Cleveland Ohio from the 3rd to the 6 of August. There, Yoyorecreation team members Minato Furuta and Yusuke Otsuka took to the stage on the final day to lay their claim to the title.
This year Minato Furuta was perhaps the most pumped up of all the Yoyorecreation team members, and that was reflected in his high-energy freestyle. In the 3A finals, using a pair of Triads, he performed a supremely well executed routine with very few misses over the 3 minute period.
He even managed to hit his signature gyro-flop to horizontal combo with no misses. Despite not scoring enough to make top 3, this routine will definitely go down as one of the best freestyles by the former World Champion.
Having qualified for the finals after having placed high in the semifinals without a problem, Japan’s King of 1A entered the finals with the goal of taking home the title. Using a remixed version of the track he is most well known for using. After missing a bind early on, Yusuke was unable to find his groove. This followed on to a series of missed hooks and hops, and so he was unable to rack up a strong score. Even though this year would have been disappointing to Yusuke, he has shown clear development year on year, and so we expect he will come back stronger next year.